Over
the last year or so, I have written several times about the fast
growth of secularization and atheization in Poland. Practically all
studies, including those conducted by the Catholic Church, confirm
this diagnosis, but it’s only recently that I had compared the
data reflecting this process with that from the Netherlands, UK and
The USA of the decades, when these countries were going through the
similar transformation.

The
result of this comparison is surprising, to say the least. In the
last decade, the growth of unbelief in Poland has been approximately
twice as fast as in those countries in their secularization “peak
periods”. While the percentage of self-confessed atheists in
Poland has doubled since the death of the Polish pope in 2005,
similar growth in Holland, United Kingdom, and the USA was achieved
only after 20 years of secularization or even more. In 2005, just 4
per cent of Poles declared that they were atheists while in 2015 it
was just 9 per cent. In the UK, the number of atheists rose from 14%
to 42% between 1963 and 2012; that is over half a century. In the
Netherlands, from 1958 to 1980, when the progress of atheization was
the most remarkable, the percentage of unbelievers rose from 24 to 50
per cent. In recent decades, a similar phenomenon has taken place in
the USA, until recently considered to be the only “god’s
country” among highly developed, democratic nations. Phil
Zuckerman, a well-known American sociologist, (for many years
involved in the studies on secularization) recently informed that the
percentage of “nones” in the USA increased from 9 per
cent in mid-nineties to approx. 20 in 2015. Although on another
occasion, he said that currently (2015) even more than 23 percent of
the US citizens do not identify with any religion, it would still
mean that this process is much slower than in Poland, especially if
you take into account the real numbers, and they may be much more
optimistic than those revealed in surveys. One of the most
respectable Polish social psychologists, prof. Janusz Czapinski,
estimates that the actual percentage of atheists in Poland is about
three times as high and amounts to 25 percent. It seems highly likely
and the reason that the surveys found only 8 to 9 percent can be
explained by the fact that few Poles have realized what is happening,
and many are still afraid to admit that they have no faith in god.
The other reason is that despite “the revolution”, the
political position of the Church is still strong, especially in small
towns and rural areas.

Many
other data support my claim. The number of those who declare that
they are “deeply religious” have fallen over the last
decade by 50 percent (from 12 to 8 percent) and only 5 percent of
those surveyed fully accept the tenets of the Catholic doctrine. In
the same period, the number of pilgrims has fallen by approx. 30
percent, the number of seminarists by 40 percent and practitioners by
28 percent.

One
should be aware, however, that atheization “à la
polonaise” has little or nothing to do with "humanization".
Polish atheists are quite often authoritarian, antifeminist or
homophobic. Some dream about a strong leader, the liberator who would
impose some form of secularism, sometimes not very different from a
communist model. Others try to prosecute or at least censor
“incorrect”, religious or pro-scientific views, like the
ones expressed by Peter Singer in his article titled “Should we
talk about race and intelligence”. The editors of an atheist
quarterly “Without Dogma” refused to publish this
article, accusing Singer of fascism!

There
are many causes and reasons for this gap or even chasm between
atheism and humanism in Poland. The issue is certainly worth serious
consideration. In this short note, however, I will briefly mention
just one of them.

In
XIX century, a Polish Romantic poet Juliusz Słowacki (probably
unbeliever himself) called Poles “the parrot of nations”,
as he realized that Polish mentality and culture are not only the
result of an independent development but rather the effect of “aping”
other countries and cultures. I am afraid, it is still the case to a
great extent, so – if I am right – our atheist revolution
might be mainly the result of joining the European Union in 2004. No
doubt, this is better than no change at all but far from what a
humanist would expect. Enlightenment and humanism are not possible if
culture is not developed enough to reach the “sapere aude”
level. Humanist culture can be inspired by other cultures but must be
developed autonomously, at all levels, individual, social and
cultural, and so far, this is hardly the case of Polish atheism.
There are a few groups that advocate more humanist and rational type
of secularization, but for the time being, we are far from the
humanist revolution, indeed.

We
will deal more thoroughly with this complex issue in the future.
Today I just want to share with you and roughly justify the simple
observation that what is taking place in Poland these days may be
sensibly called an atheist revolution. I hope I have at least managed
to encourage you to examine the issue further.